


The Session

by ClariceSansnom



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bruce Banner Is a Good Bro, Consensual, Flashbacks, Hurt Tony Stark, Intimacy, Men Crying, Pain, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Touching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 08:15:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11032230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClariceSansnom/pseuds/ClariceSansnom
Summary: Bruce finds Tony in pain. He helps.Can be read as slash, pre-slash or nothing at all, maybe dom/sub undertones, whatever you like to read into it.





	The Session

**Author's Note:**

> So… I´m pretty new to this so let me know what you think.
> 
> Written on a summer road trip in the back seat a couple of days after receiving a "session".

„Jarvis, where is Tony?“

„He is in his lab, Dr. Banner.“

He didn´t knock. He was pretty sure Jarvis had alerted Tony of his coming over anyways. So waltzing in, in their typical manner, Bruce just said:

„Hey, Tony, you left this in my centrifuge, I thought you might-“

Only then did he realize what position Tony was laying in.

„-need it.“

A moment of pure panic surged through him and he had to remind himself to take a few deep breaths before they had a big green problem more on their hands.

He stepped up to the engineer on the floor and made sure to get his attention before just touching him.

„Tony? Can you look at me?“

The other man blinked up between ragged breaths. He pried his arm away from the reactor to reach for Bruce´s hand.

„Phantom pain?“

„Yeah“, he managed to wheeze. He held onto Bruce´s hand for dear life.

„May I pick you up, Tony? I don´t want you to spend this episode on the floor.“

Tony nodded and unsuccessfully tried to blink his tears away. He still couldn´t quite move through the pain. The sight chilled Bruce´s blood down to his bones.

He gently slid his arms under Tony´s shoulders and knees and couldn´t quite swallow down a small grunt when he lifted the other man from the cold floor. Instantly, Tony grabbed onto his lab coat and around his neck.

„Jarivs, open the door for us, please.“

„Where...?“, Tony breathed.

„I´m taking you to bed, Tony.“

They both knew Tony was in too much pain to give a smart retort.

„... work“, he mumbled.

„You´re in no condition to work, Tony, you are inches away from slipping into an attack and you need to rest. When was the last time you slept properly?“

Tony stayed silent.

„Hm, that´s what I thought. Want me to give you a session?“

Bruce´s words were gentle now. Not that he had been harsh with Tony before, just very matter-of-fact.

After a few seconds of evident emotional confusion Tony nodded slowly, visibly relaxing already, just from the thought of it. Bruce could feel him give up his shame.

„You are not weak, Tony. You are the bravest man I know.“

He softly set Tony down on the bed.

„Do you think you can sit?“

Tony pushed his hands onto the mattress beside his hips as a yes.

„I´ll remove your shoes, ok?“

A small nod, then Tony started to fumble with the hem of his shirt.

„Don´t undress, Tony. I don´t want to do this on bare skin, I´ll only trigger you with that.“

Tony´s eyes fluttered closed again and he was about to topple over and onto Bruce sitting in front of him, so Bruce quickly opened his arms and helped the swaying man back into position. He held Tony´s head close to his own chest as he got up and then leaned Tony against his belly. 

„Just breathe“, he soothed.

As quickly as he could he got out of his coat and shoes and climbed onto the bed, circling Tony´s sitting frame and taking up position behind him. He pressed up to Tony´s back slowly and got his heels under him to sit down onto them, making a perfect seat for Tony to relax into.

„Okay, here I am. You want to lay your hands on my thighs? So you can hold onto me and feel me when you need to be grounded?“

Slowly, Tony managed to set both his hands down on top of Bruce´s thighs. Bruce started lightly stroking up and down Tony´s arms to relax him and get their body contact going.

„That´s really good, Tony, you´re doing great.“

Tony let his head fall back onto Bruce´s left shoulder, just like he always did. Bruce moved his left hand up onto Tony´s forehead, just like he always did. Finally, Tony´s breathing evened out a bit, even though he was still visibly in pain.

„You want to repeat your safe words to me?“

„Green, yellow, red“, Tony whispered.

„That´s good, Tony, great. Now, I want you to safe word out when I touch you in a way you don´t want or when I say something you can´t take in your current state, okay? I don´t want you to hesitate just to be a strong man or something, understood? You are no lesser man for crying and you are certainly still a hero even when in pain, okay?“

Tony swallowed thickly. After a few seconds he whispered:

„Okay.“

It worried Bruce a bit that he hadn´t heard Tony say a single word in normal volume since he found him.

The one thing that brought Tony down very quickly was stroking his hair back, so he did that. At the same time he gently set his other hand high onto Tony´s chest just below his neck. He didn´t touch the reactor this way but still shielded his chest a bit with it.

When he felt Tony´s breaths go deeper he knew Tony was ready to be laid out so he slowly lifted his hands away and placed them onto Tony´s on his thighs. He turned their wrists up and out, loosely holding Tony´s now open hands to expose them to air. He could feel Tony starting to sob more again and turn his head into the space beneath Bruce´s chin. Tony now lay on his body, exposed and aching and sobbing and brave like a true warrior.

„Color?“

Another sob.

„Green“, came a clear answer between pain-driven sobs. Finally! He spoke!

„Good. Let it out.“

Bruce lifted his left hand onto Tony´s forehead again and just held him in this position to give him a few minutes to cry. It was heart-wrecking. He was about to chime in when he felt Tony quiet down just a bit. That was when he took Tony´s right hand and slowly lifted it to lay over the reactor, the fabric of the shirt still between to not have the cold metal on the skin of his calloused hand just yet.

He tipped Tony´s head forward and away from his shoulder and had him hunch over their hands, Tony´s on the reactor, Bruce´s underneath on his right side ribcage. He could almost feel the burn of the phantom pain under his fingers there.

Slowly, he let go of Tony´s forehead and placed the warm hand between Tony´s shoulder blades. All he did was feel the movements of Tony´s breathing, looking for tense muscles and sore bones, trying to mend loose ends between body and mind of the genius in his hands. And Tony did move beneath his hands, corrected his posture, felt into his own body to find its parts, to put the broken pieces back together, like the mechanic he was.

Then came a few painful groans and equally nerve-shattering wheezing inhales.

Suddenly, Tony grabbed hard at the edges of the reactor and his open hand balled into a tight fist.

„Yellow“, he choked out.

Bruce grabbed his shoulder and brought Tony back onto his shoulder, back to chest, open to breathe, not hunched over like over a bucket of water.

„Do you want me to take my hands off?“

„No“, Tony breathed as he frantically grabbed Bruce´s hand and brought it onto the reactor underneath the shirt. Bruce´s breath caught in his chest for a moment.

„Hold me“, said Tony insecurely. „I´m having a flashback. Not a real one, just, I see, I don´t know, I´m there but I´m here.“

Bruce took a few seconds to comprehend that. He brought his thoughts into order.

„I´m with you“, was all he said. All he really needed to say.

Tony tried to control his breathing. His intakes rattled in his chest.

„Protect me“, he whispered.

Bruce pressed his arm into Tony´s ribcage and raked the other around his shoulders from behind.

„Follow my voice, Tony. I know you can do this. You are doing great, Tony, just breathe. Feel my hand over your chest. You are in the tower, with me, the team is downstairs. Feel my breathing. That´s right, just like that. Open your eyes, Tony.“

He did. God, he did.

„Thank you for trusting me, Tony. You let me guide you, that took a lot of courage. Are you back with me?“

„Yeah“, he rasped.

„Good. I want to connect you to your body a bit more. I feel like you only get phantom pain when you loose that connection for too long. Is that accurate?“

Tony had to think about this. Probably yes. He nodded.

„Okay. I´m going to move your hands now.“ It was not a question. On purpose. Tony knew how to use his safe words.

Bruce moved his hand away from the reactor on top of Tony´s on the little circle, fingertips on skin, palm on glass. He pressed just a bit, then let go completely to hand power over to Tony. The other arm he brought around Tony´s waist in half a self-hug. He figured Tony hadn´t done that in a while, if ever. Loved himself.

He held his forehead again to stabilize the position, just for a few minutes, then he let go and let Tony feel the warmth on his back only. That was enough. He needed to do this by himself.

Minute by minute, Tony calmed. The pain withdrew. Twenty minutes in that position left him bonelessly tired.

„Do you think you can sleep?“

He nodded lazily, his eyelids fluttering open and closed.

Bruce slowly, very carefully lifted away from Tony´s back and came around to his front. Tony was swaying heavily in his sitting posture again, this time not from pain but from exhaustion. Bruce pulled him up by his upper arms and freed them from around his torso. He then slid his hands under the hem of Tony´s shirt and gently pulled it over his head.

Removing the covers from the bed while holding the frail body upright, he gently lowered Tony back down. He placed him in sitting position in the middle of the bed, straddling his thighs while holding him from the front this time.

He stroked down his back and looked into Tony´s eyes.

„Are you alright?“, he asked finally.

„Yes.“

Bruce had Tony place both hands over the reactor to physically accept the foreign object into his body again. He then slowly lowered the other man onto the pillows with the arm between the shoulder blades and the other hand around Tony´s neck. Before he set Tony´s head down, he pressed their foreheads together for a moment to thank tony for his trust.

He felt Tony´s even breathing as he let himself up and away. He pulled the covers over the physically and emotionally drained engineer and watched as his eyes fell closed, still in the protective position Bruce had given him.

Tony slept for fifteen hours straight and woke without pain or anxiety.

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like Bruce is a character very much in contact with his body and Tony might need help in that department sometimes. Also, it strikes me how much BDSM fanfiction there is out there and how little about the physical changes Tony has undergone and their long-term effects.
> 
> Feedback appreciated! Thank you!
> 
>  
> 
> Also, if anyone feels inspired to make an artwork of this, please feel free to do so! I can´t draw but would love an image of Bruce holding Tony like that.
> 
> Send me requests or prompts, I´m looking for inspiration!


End file.
